Guardians of Equestria
by Changeling In Disguise
Summary: The Tartarus gates have been breached as old and new villans alike join forces to take over Equestria. In efforts to stop the upcoming crisis, Celestia brings ten ponies as a team to protect Equestria with their lives. With overwhelming odds and danger around every corner, can the team of ten succeed? Takes place 500 years before the show. (Antagonist OC's welcomed)
1. Antagonist OC

**Hello, I'd personally like to thank everybody who submitted an OC to me as they'll be used in this story. Fireball, I'm sorry that I can't use your OC in this story but if I do decide to make another story called 'Guardians of Tartarus', which almost follows this one except other characters descend in Tartarus to restore it back to its original state or creatures will continue to go as they please. But I'm still unsure at the moment. Anyway, I'm just going to keep this chapter up if anybody wants to make an antagonist OC for this story. They are always welcomed.**

**(NOTE: Please be creative as possible!)**

** Antagonist Profile:**

**Name:**

**Gender:**

**Species:**

**Looks:**

**Personality:**

**Intentions:**

**Powers/abilities:**

**Background:**


	2. Breaking Out

Chaos and destruction reeked through the Tartarus, tormenting the wrecked souls that are forced to endure the pain for all eternity. Amongst the majority of the souls destined to be punished are Nightmare Forces and Darklings, once former members of Equestrian and Gryphon society who allowed their hatred and greed to consume them into what they call 'their true selves'.

Deeper within Tartarus, beneath the ground was a large cavern where more powerful creatures were chained and locked away. A total of twenty prisoners resides down here as they were the worst of the worst. Amongst one of them was Lord Tirek, a demonic centaur who was bent on taking all of Equestrian magic for himself but was ultimately stopped by Celestia and Luna before he could even begin.

Each prisoner had their own story of how they tried to bring down Celestia or bring Equestria to its knees but none of them ever came close to doing any of those things none other than the Darkling King himself. Unlike the other prisoners who used stealth or boldly and foolishly attacked head first to overthrow Celestia or destroy Equestria, he used a different technique.

He befriended the Princess.

Using his abstract knowledge of the Princess, he slipped close to her, publishing himself as a fake royal prince to a species known as Gargoyles. Since the Darkling King was in a form of a eight foot Gargoyle with dark purple skin, razor sharp teeth and claws, and glowing golden eyes. It was the perfect setup to shadow his real identity and purpose.

For months, Celestia and the Darkling King's friendship grew stronger as he kept her from fulfilling most of her royal duties and the danger that lured within the shadows. The Darkling's impending and ever growing army stood idly outside Canterlot within the shadows, watching normal ponies go about their day unaware of the danger right outside the city walls. They all awaited for their master's signal to strike.

The day finally arrived after six months of being with the princess. That night, the Darkling King created a powerful sleeping spell over Canterlot, not including the castle, making the civilians and guards fall asleep right on the spot. Then, the Darkling King sent a ray of light into the sky, signaling the attack.

The streets filled with Darklings as the remaining Royal Guards from the castle protected the castle gates the best they could, but their attempts to keep the Darklings at bay soon proved useless at the Darklings broke through the castle gates with ease before storming the castle and taking out any remaining guards left standing.

Celestia at this time was residing in the throne room where Royal Commissioners urged for Celestia to stay on task or they'll have to take some drastic measures to make sure the princess does her royal duties no matter what. That's when the Darklings stormed into the throne room as Celestia took action. Celestia did a good job at keeping the Darklings at bay but without any help, Celestia was soon overwhelmed.

As soon as the Darkling King revealed that he was the mastermind behind all of it, anger washed over Celestia as she tried to struggle to get free, but the Darklings kept her pinned to the ground. Before the Darkling King could declare victory that he was successful at overthrowing Celestia and bringing Equestria to its knees, Celestia had on final trick up her sleeve.

With one tear escaping from her eye, her horn began to glow brightly. The Darkling only watched as Celestia's magic grew in size right before it bursted out, engulfing the whole area in light and banishing the Darkling King and all his followers into Tartarus for all eternity. Ten years has passed as peace and tranquility soon returned to Canterlot with no more traces of Darklings anywhere.

But what nopony saw was that it was all part of the Darkling King's plan. The Gargoyle sat on his prisoned platform, chains latched onto nearly every part of his body as he silently counted to himself. As soon as he reached three hundred, he stood up and looked around the chaotic world he and every prisoner must endure.

"What a pitiful way to spend my time..." the Darkling king said before he grabbed onto one of the chains and snapped it off like it was nothing. Cerberus, Tartarus best guardians, heard the sound of chains snapping and turned to see the Gargoyle freeing himself. Cerberus let out a low growl before he charged. The king took notice of Cerberus rushing towards him as he braced himself before slamming his fist into the middle head, sending Cerberus into the air and into a wall, where rocks and debris covered Cerberus.

The Darkling King took another look around to see the prisoners taking notice of the scene around them as they all stared right at him. Now its time to start an uprising, thought the Gargoyle demon before he cleared his throat. "Brothers and sisters of Tartarus, our time is now. The time to show Equestria what true fear means is now. Once Celestia finally falls under our immense power, Equestria will be ours for the taking!"

As the Darkling spoke, the excitement surged through the prisoners as they cheered and applaud for the Gargoyle. "So the question is, are you with me?" the Darkling King asked as the prisoners cheered in agreement before he smiled and flew to the nearest platform which had a shadow shaped in a human's form with red glowing eyes. "Its about time you actually do something, and here I thought you just sit there and mope around." the shadow said before the Darkling King snapped off its chains.

"I see your alive and well, Arabus. Now hurry up and free the others, we've got a rebellion to start." he said as Arabus nodded his head and vanished into thin air. Suddenly, the Darkling King heard a sound behind him to see several Abigors, high-ranking demons that watched over the prisoners of Tartarus. Abigors looked a lot like teenage dragons except that their whole bodies were shrouded in darkness, purple glowing eyes and their dark claws were laced with deadly neurotoxins to either stun or kill their victims.

The Darkling King smirked before his claws began to glow with dark energy and sliced into one of Abigors, spilling its blue blood onto the dilapidated ground before the Abigor fell lifelessly to the ground. The remaining Abigors screeched out in anger over their fallen comrade. "Oh shut up you noisy bastards!" the Darkling King sneered out before swiftly decapitating the remaining Abigors and left them in their own pool of blood.

As the Darkling King made his way up through the prison, he dispatched any Abigors that stood in his way before reaching where the freed prisoners huddled together. He looked at each one of them as he recognized three of them like Shadowfright, the leader of the infamous Nightmare Forces, Arabus and Lord Tirek. The rest were a total mystery to him.

"Alright, we're almost home free. Our vengeance is upon those who put us here. Our time here is done and we will rise against our enemy as one!" The Darkling roared out as the prisoners cheered out in response before they marched forward towards their freedom.

But before they could reach the surface of Tartarus, a group of forty to fifty Abigors stood in their way, claws ready to shred into the prisoners. Prisoners stood their ground, ready to fight for their freedom but before anything can go down, the Dark Gargoyle walked over to the edge of the enormous cavern incline that lead down to the dark abyss below.

"Hey lazy ass! Are you going to help or are you going to stay down there for the next eternity?" the Darkling King yelled down before there was a deep growl and a ginormous chained fist came from the abyss. Before anybody could make a move, the gigantic fist came down on all the Abigors, squashing them all. As the fist lifts it hand back up, the scene in front of them was a bit unbearable.

Some of the Abigors were squished into oblivion while others were flatten with their silver intestines bursting through their sides, heads smashed into pieces as their brains laid everywhere and parts of their bodies bent in awkward and unusual positions. Normal ponies would have been sickened by this, but none of the prisoners were not sane.

The prisoners cheered in delight as a very large figure came out of the darkened abyss. The figure was almost tall as any mountain in Equestria as it had long claws, black eyes, a gaping mouth with fangs, huge black demon-like wings and wore pure red spiky armor. The giant looked down at the prisoners who were scared shitless of the beast before the Darkling King flew up to the creature's face. "Its about time you move your lazy ass. What the fuck were you waiting for, Hearth Warming?" he asked as the giant gave him the death glare before speaking.

"Darkling King, I should have known it was you who's behind all of this. What's the meaning of all this?" the giant asked in a deep tone, shaking the entire area with his voice. The dark Gargoyle smiled devilishly as he flew in a little closer to the giant's face. "Now, now Decondra, you know as well as I do that we all do not belong down here as we all belong out there, ruling over those 'imperfect' swine. Isn't that what you always want?"

The giant known as Decondra stroked his chin in wonder before he let his fantasy take over. It took a while before Decondra final made up his mind. "You got that right. But how can I trust you?" Decondra asked, not totally convinced that the Darkling King won't betray him in any way. The dark Gargoyle let out a small laugh before he flew up to Decondra's ear.

"You have nothing to worry about my brother, Why on Equestria would ever betray somepony as useful as you?" the Darkling King whispered into Decondra's ear, using a bit of his hypnotic voice into his question. Decondra looked at the Darkling King in confusion before the hypnotic voice took hold and he unwilling nodded before saying, "I guess your right."

With Decondra on their side, they all made their way to the surface of Tartarus. Just a hundred meters from them and across a bridge was the Tartarus Gates. These gates were nothing like any other. Instead of it being silver or gold like traditional gates, this one was made entirely out of black metal. Chains hung from almost every part of the gates as it swayed violently like it was trying to open itself up.

Before anypony could move towards the gates, there was a low pitch howl coming from almost every direction. "Tartarus Hounds!" one of the prisoners yelled out as hundreds wolf-like creatures raced toward the band of prisoners. These wolf-like creatures were about twenty to twenty-five feet tall, pure black fur, red eyes very sharp teeth and claws, and smoke emending from almost every part of their bodies.

The prisoners all turned and raced toward the gates, trying to outrun the Tartarus Hounds but they were soon swarmed as several Tartarus Hounds tackled some of the prisoners to the ground. The remaining group of escaped prisoners kept running towards the gates. Several more prisoners were wrestled to the ground before Decondra turned around and lifted his fist into the air and slammed it into the ground.

The ground where is fist slammed into began to crack before the ground started to collapse in front of them. Tartarus Hounds and prisoners alike were swallowed into the collapsing ground before it stopped, leaving a huge gaping hole, cutting off everything from the bridge. Decondra, Arabus, Lord Tirek, Shadowfright, the Darkling King, and four others were the only prisoners left that escaped from that ordeal before they all turned around and made their way towards the gate and towards their freedom.

Before they could reach the gates, two Abigors showed up and readied themselves to tear into the escaped prisoners. Before any of the prisoners could take care of them, there was a sudden flash of light as a large unicorn figure appeared. The figure stabbed its long horn into the back of one, spilling its blood all over the figure before tearing its horn upwards, cutting a larger hole into the Abigor before the other end of the horn came out of the Abigor's neck, killing it instantly.

The figure suddenly disappeared and reappeared next to the other Abigor and brought it to the ground before slamming its huge hooves into its head, cracking open its skull and spilled its brain all over the ground. The prisoners stay quiet as they stare at the figure who kept itself in the shadows before the Darkling King walked up to the figure.

"Its about time you finally show, did you bring it?" he asked as the figure nodded and threw a rolled up piece of paper in which the Darkling King unraveled it and looked at it as it was a map of Equestria with multiple circles circled all around the map. The Darkling smiled before rolling the paper up and stared at the figure.

"Thank you, now you know what to do next right?" the dark Gargoyle asked as the figure nodded and the Darkling King smiled. "Perfect, now you are dismissed!" he said before the figure bowed. "As you wish my lord." the figure said in a slight Russian accent before the figure disappeared in a flash of light and the dark Gargoyle turned to the remaining followers.

"Brothers and sisters in arms, today we take our first step to revenge and soon Equestria will fall under our power! They may fight back but if we all fight as one, we'll overcome even the toughest opponent. We will show Equestria what true power is and we will, without a doubt, win!" the Darkling King said before he whistled, attracting his followers as they all started making their way to their master.

The dark Gargoyle walked up to the gates and sliced open the chains, making the gates swing open with ease as they all started walking out towards where Equestria lies and an army of Darklings and Nightmare Forces soon followed.


	3. Assemble

**Forgot to tell you, rated M due to mild language, blood, gore, gruesome death in later chapters and whatever else I might be forgetting.**

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**Two weeks later...**

News began to flood all over Equestria with strange occurrences and sightings. Messenger ponies swarmed into the Canterlot Castle, each bearing their own news they carry to the princess. Celestia patiently listened over each of the messenger's news with her usual calm expression but deep down, she was petrified. She continued to listen to the news that kept rolling in every minute before excusing herself from the throne room.

"Your Highness?" called out a voice from the Throne Room before an Earth Pony exited shortly after the princess left. This Earth Pony had a black coat with a white muzzle, silver mane and tail, a red tie and a pair of glasses as his Cutie Mark

"Your Highness!" the earth pony called out again before racing over to the Sun Goddess. Celestia kept walking but took quick glances at the Earth Pony a few times. Oculus was his name and his sole purpose was to help the princess cope with her duties.

But deep down, Celestia felt that Oculus was more than her helper but a companion so she knew she can trust him for what she was about to do next.

"I knew this day was coming..." Celestia muttered loud enough for Oculus to hear.

"I'm sorry?" Oculus asked before him and the princess entered a massive circular room with several long tables, paper, books and other materials.

"The strange occurrences that are happening around Equestria are the criminals that escaped Tartarus. They must be trying to free the other prisoners from their personal prison." Celestia guessed as her horn glowed and a quill and paper levitated towards her, encased in her magic aura.

"Well, if you know who's causing all this, then why don't we inform the Council what's actually happening." Oculus suggested before Celestia stopped writing and her horn glowed brighter, making the letter disappear from sight.

"No! The Council mustn't know what's really happening." Celestia said in distress, causing Oculus to flinch at her tone.

"Why not?"

"If the Council was aware of the situation at hoof, it would send them into a state of paranoia. And that could provide an advantage for the criminals. I can't allow that, that's why the Council must not know. In fact, nopony must know of it as well."

"Then what do you suppose we do?" Oculus asked as Celestia concentrated her magic to reveal a hidden stairwell underneath the floor.

Without saying a word, Celestia began to descend down the stairs. Oculus stopped at the head of the stairs, not sure if what he and the princess are doing is right because if the Council ever found out, it'll be his hide. But then again, he's learn to trust her decisions over the years even though some of them don't exactly make sense at first.

It wasn't til Celestia has disappeared somewhere down the stairs before Oculus finally decided and raced after the princess. By the time Oculus caught up, light was becoming more scarcely before they reached the bottom to a lone door.

Celestia used her magic to open the door to a brightly lit circular room. There wasn't much to the room as it only had three tables each stacked with hoof-drawn maps, tons of notes and utensils, a small rack with ten scrolls lined up perfectly with golden ribbons around them and a Equestrian flag symbol on it, and lastly a 3D model the entire map of Equestria encased under a glass dome in the middle of it all.

"What is this place?" Oculus asked in slight awe.

"This is my Situation Room under the castle. It isn't much but I plan to construct it to be more publicized and much more useful when tackling these kind of situations. But for the time being, this is just about it."

Oculus looked around, getting the feel of the room before he felt an unsettling feeling that he hoped it was a mislead feeling.

"Um, sorry for speaking out of line your Majesty but please tell me we're not tackling this kind of situation all on our own considering our positions?" Oculus asked as he mostly didn't want to hear what she was going to say before Celestia chuckled a bit.

"Oh no, I got something else in mind." Celestia said, calming Oculus' troubled state before she walked over to the small rack with letters and used her magic to levitate them.

"With these. These are our last and only hope to ensure Equestria has a bright future. They are bound by a special connection to a random pony somewhere in Equestria. To whom they are, is beyond me. All know is that they, and they alone, will be the ones to bring peace back to Equestria." Celestia explained before each letter began to glow in vibrant colors and disappeared into thin air.

"There we go. Come along Oculus, we have a few things to attend to before their arrival." Celestia said as Oculus stared in wonder before shaking himself out of that state.

"Yes your Highness." Oculus bowed before following the princess out of the room.

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**Several hours later...**

Nine out of ten ponies has shown up in the secret room as they all stayed away from each other with a maximum of one or two by each other.

None of them spoke a word but only took a few glances at each other, like they were deciding whether the others were worth somepony or nothing at all.

Examining the 3D model, Shadow Essence took down a mental note of the model before taking a quick glance at the other comers. He wasn't enthusiastic about the idea of being with others but he had to deal with it. Shadow was a Pegasus with black fur, a dark blue and dark purple mane and tail, red eyes, Blue candle with light blue smoke and smaller than the rest of the stallion in the room.

Standing near the door they all came in was a Unicorn who looked a little on edge mostly because he felt other staring at him. Error Night was a Unicorn with blue fur that becomes darker down his legs and hooves, a messy dark red mane and tail with a thick, maroon patches on the right side of his mane and tail, silver eyes and his mane covers most of his right eye.

The only two ponies who were actually close to each other were brothers. Drew was a Unicorn with green fur, a blue mane and tail, a notebook and a pencil, and a scar on his left cheek. His brother, Shining Sword, was a Pegasus with black fur, orange mane and tail and a shining sword and a shield.

The one that kept her distance from everypony else was a tad bit different than all the rest. Dragon Tail was actually a water dragon/pony hybrid. She had a Light green mane and tail and deep, ocean blue scales; one yellow eye and one red eye, and one of her wings looked more like a fin than a wing. She technically she doesn't have a Cutie Mark but that seems to not bother her mostly because she believes it'll classify her.

Another one was doing something with a stack of papers as he managed to build a few paper airplanes and throw them around, occasionally hitting somepony with them, to pass the time. Midnight Arrow was a Pegasus with black fur, a dark green mane and tail with a crimson stripe through the mane and tail and a Lightning bolt shadow on the moon.

One by the name of Fine Art decided to do wingups to pass the time as he silently counted how many he was doing. Fine Art was a Pegasus with grey fur, blue eyes, a messy black mane and tail with a yellow streak going through it and a pencil as his Cutie Mark.

The only pony who seemed quite familiar with the room was Celestia's one and only student; Thunder Storm. Thunder was a Pegasus with a grey coat, a main and tail that was black with a golden stripe in the middle.

And last but not least was a pony who seemed to try to scoot his way into a group to acquaint himself with the others only to fail. BlueIce Snow was a Pegasus with a dark blue coat, light blue main and tail, navy blue eyes and a skull with two swords cross. also wore a black cowboy hat, sunglasses and a green vest.

Another hour rolls by as all the ponies tried to find ways to keep themselves occupied before Oculus popped his head into the room. Sweat began to pour down his face as he counted and recounted to only get nine every time.

_Where is the tenth?_ Oculus nervously asked himself before fear began to take a hold of him. Oculus let out a sigh before entering the room.

"Ahem," Oculus cleared out his throat, catching everypony's attention. "Hello everypony, I am Oculus and I'm sure all of you must be wondering why you were summoned here today. Princess Celestia will brief you of what's happening." Oculus announced before Celestia entered the room.

Everypony bowed respectfully at the princess' entrance except Thunder Storm who raced over and hugged his mentor. A flash of sadness washed over the princess to see her student among the chosen ones but she knew that one day her student would take his part in this world.

The princess walked over to one of the tables before motioning everypony to come close. All of them were skeptical at first because of getting closer to each other than they intended to be but they obeyed anyway and crowded around the table.

"Good. You all know about the strange occurrences and sightings right? Well, those occurrences are connected to criminals that escaped the Tartarus weeks ago. I contacted an old friend who will take care of the problem in Tartarus. By my calculations, they must be trying to break out other criminals from their personal prisons and then march themselves up to Canterlot."

"By now most of these criminals must have built an army in which to spread chaos across the land. I've assembled an army to manage with that." Celestia explained as everypony stared slightly in disbelief at what they are hearing.

"Wait a moment. If you have somepony else taking care of these problems, then why need us?" Error questioned.

"Good question. While the armies are occupied, its your job to locate and send the villains back to Tartarus where they belong. They probably won't go without a fight, so be one your guard. Here, take this with you." Celestia said before tossing a rolled up scroll onto the table. "It's a spell that opens a rift to the Tartarus. If you preform it when your enemy is at their weakest, it should suck them right in. Are you all up for it?"

"The fuck I will, I'm not getting myself killed over all this!" Midnight Arrow sneered before he slammed his hoof on the table to get his point across.

An argument began to swirl up amongst the group of whether to take on this mission or not as Shadow Essence and Dragon Tail kept out of the argument, allowing the others to fight over it. Oculus bit his hoof in nervousness that Celestia's plan will never work if they kept bickering like this.

"How do any of you all expect to accomplish anything if your just going to bitch about it." a sudden voice with a bit of a Russian accent, making everypony stop and stare where the voice came from to see a big Unicorn. This Unicorn was very big in size, almost Celestia's size, muscular, black fur with a silverish mane and tail, an eye patch over left eye as his right eye is dark green and a shattered shield as his Cutie Mark. His hoofsteps echoed throughout the quiet room.

"I honestly thought I was going to be working with ponies who would sacrifice themselves for their country, but it just doesn't look that way." the Unicorn added, enraging all of them.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Oculus butted in, clearly irritated from the Unicorn interrupting.

"My apologies, my name is Platinum Mane and I believe I am your tenth." Platinum introduced before he slightly bowed. Celestia felt an unsettling aura coming from Platinum that told her to keep a close eye on him.

"You all know what must be done. But for today, go home and get some rest. Tomorrow you will begin you quest." Celestia explained as most of them muttered in complaints but nodded in agreement anyway before they began to make their way out of the room.

Celestia let out a heavy sigh before she turned her attention to her assistant.

"Oculus, can you watch over them. I have a feeling that not all of them are saying who they are." Celestia muttered as Oculus nodded and opened a book to an empty page and stared at it.

_They may not be much and they may be under prepared for this mission, but they are our last hope for Equestria's future._

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**Sorry if this chapter was a bit crappy, I just suddenly realized that I'm terrible with 3rd person stories. Anyway, here is a thank you to all the owners to the OC's who allowed me to use them for this story.**

**Thunder Storm- Fireball**

**Drew &amp; Shining Sword- Drewman784**

**BlueIce Snow- cpt blueice navy**

**Midnight Arrow- MichealTheBoss**

**Dragon Tail &amp; Shadow Essence- Dante Lorell**

**Error Night- Sanity07**

**Fine Art- Hero Submissions**


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